* Facebook Iran 2012 *

Facebook handed Iranian domain name by UN

(Daily Telegraph) - Facebook has been granted control of the Facebook.ir Iranian domain name after the United Nations ordered its owner to surrender the address.By Claudine BeaumontJul, 29 2009The United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organisation said that Majid Karimian Ghannad had registered the Facebook.ir domain name "in bad faith", and ruled that he had no right to use the web address. The organisation ordered Mr Ghannad to transfer ownership of the localized domain to Facebook.Mr Ghannad said that he was using the site to sell book, but the United Nations rejected his claim.However, the domain will be of limited use to Facebook. The Iranian government has blocked access to the social-networking site, although internet users are still able to log on to Facebook by using anti-filtering software to circumvent the security measures put in place.Facebook recently launched a Farsi language version of the site. Eric Kwan, an engineer who worked on the Persian version, said the site had been rushed out in the wake of the disputed Iranian elections. He said that Facebook hoped the changes would make it easier for people inside Iran to communicate with other people in their native tongue.The UN World Intellectual Property Organisation has the power to rule on a variety of disputes, including contested ownership of domain names. It was appointed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organisation in charge of registering top-level domains such as .com and .net. Facebook has met with controversies. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including the People's Republic of China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Bangladesh on different basesOn July 24, 2012 Iranian police forces have announced that they will confront and cleanse the internet and sites like Facebook to stop those who “promote prostitution and licentiousness” on it.Commander Kamal Hadianfar, the head of the information, production and exchange police of the Islamic Republic (FTA), told ISNA on Tuesday: “Pornography is a crime not just in Iran but also in other countries such as the United States.”He added: “In 2010, Facebook served as a free domain for criminals, but in the name of God and with the presence of the police over the past 15 months, we have made many significant moves to cleanse social networks, especially that of Facebook.”He referred to the Puff and Duff page on Facebook with 27,000 members, saying: “The police have identified the users and destroyed their page.”He emphasized that “individuals who try to create corruption on the internet will be referred to the morality police of the security forces.”Puff and Duff is reportedly a popular Facebook page where Iranian youth share entertaining ideas.Hadianfar claimed that four members of the Puff and Duff network were arrested for attracting 27,000 members by “promoting corruption and prostitution.”The head of Basij Information and Technology, Mehdi Jafari, previously had said that despite the official blocking of Facebook in Iran, 17-million Iranians are part of the social networking site.Iranian police have said that these social networking sites are under close observation by their forces and they have warned users that their photos and identities